Tuesday, November 11, 2008

An Interview with Max McLean

Marvin Olasky interviews Max McLean about Screwtape(his dramatic adaption of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, on extended run in Chicago), about art, and about his calling as a Christian.

Here's the final exchange:

Q: How do you prevent Christian art from becoming saccharin and soaked in sentimentalism?

The reason there is that sort of saccharin aesthetic is because there's a kind of isolation. In New York that kind of saccharin art is challenged. But on the flip side, there's a message in theater today: "There is no God, get over it." The worldview in secular theater is pretty dark. We do need people to produce [good] plays, to put the money behind it, to write those plays, to direct those plays because that's when the culture making happens. I would like to see more people thinking about "How do I create culture?"